NHL draft schedule: A lot of picks to pack into one day

Sunday

Jun 30, 2013 at 12:01 AMJun 30, 2013 at 10:24 AM

NEW YORK - The hectic pace of the just-completed, lockout-shortened season will continue today at the NHL draft. The event, which will be held in the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., would have kicked off with a showcased and lengthy first round last night had a three-month work stoppage not forced the league to shorten it to a single day for the first time since 2006.

Shawn Mitchell, The Columbus Dispatch

NEW YORK - The hectic pace of the just-completed, lockout-shortened season will continue today at the NHL draft.

The event, which will be held in the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., would have kicked off with a showcased and lengthy first round last night had a three-month work stoppage not forced the league to shorten it to a single day for the first time since 2006.

If the Devils had advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals, the series could have run as late as Friday in Newark, and workers would not have had enough time to prepare the arena.

So the NHL will return to the one-day format that it used coming out of the lockout in 2005, when the draft was cut from nine rounds to seven, closed to the public and held in an Ottawa hotel.

The league also held a one-day draft the next year in Vancouver but expanded it to two days in 2007 in Nationwide Arena. That was the first year the league conducted only a single round in prime time, in an effort to play up the first round in-house and on television.

Form held until today, when teams will have only three minutes to make their selections in every round. That includes the first, which in recent years has swollen to more than three hours, marked by lengthy, post-pick player interviews, analysis and television ad time.

The NHL hopes the first round is significantly shorter today, perhaps by an hour or more. The draft is officially scheduled to run 71/2 hours, until 10:30 p.m., although it is expected to take much longer.

Teams will be provided five timeouts of five minutes each, to use at their discretion.

"It's no big deal in terms of getting done what we need to get done," an NHL spokesman said of the changes. "But all concerned - including the league, the Devils and the city of Newark - would have preferred to have a two-day draft.

"This is a significant event on our calendar that is important to the league and the market that plays host."

Conducting seven rounds in one day won't be an issue for front-office veterans. All but one NHL draft were held in a single day from 1963 to 1999.

"It's (about) being prepared," said Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen, who participated in his first draft as a scout with the Ottawa Senators in 1995. "Maybe you have to be ready to make decisions quicker, but I don't think it's going to be a big difference. You assign a value to the players that are available, and you know how you value each pick. So you weight them against each other, and you have to move quick."

Teams won't have 12 or so hours to wheel and deal between the first and second rounds, as in recent years, but those overnight hours can make for a frustrating wait, as well.

"At least you don't have to divide into two days, where you go from the first and second day and have to wait," Kekalainen said. "It will be interesting to see when we get done (tonight). I think it will be Monday before we get done, but we'll see."